The servant led the heroes into the kitchen, making frantic signs for quiet, then proceeded to give them food and water.
The heroes questioned the servant in Koline1 and got as much information on the layout of the Palace and the size and whereabouts of the guards as he had.
It wasn’t much.
The team decided to explore the palace, starting with the area they knew personally - the guest suites. It seemed that all their possessions had been removed from their rooms.
All these suites followed the same plan, and each featured a full length mirror in the bedroom, which appeared to be firmly fixed to the wall.
Further explorations uncovered two locked doors and a luxurious corridor connecting five even more sumptuous guest suites, each with a very ornate full-length mirror in the bedroom.
Returning to the Great Hall they entered the Majordomo’s suite and searched it. Wilhelm discovered that the full length mirror in the bedroom (which seemed to be some sort of cultural motif) had a secret catch that caused the whole mirror to swing out and reveal a concealed cabinet, in which a large ring of keys was hanging.
The keys enabled the heroes to unlock the locked doors and explore the Prince’s apartment and what was obviously a princess’ apartment suite. The Princess’ apartments featured an incredibly ornate mirror in the bedroom.
While exploring the Prince’s apartments a secret door was found - a painting - leading to a corridor from which the guest bedrooms could be viewed through the two-way mirrors. There was a catch on each mirror’s rear framing, along with a “pull” that would allow one to enter the room and to pull the mirror back into place from the secret accessway.
Returning to the Prince’s apartments, another secret door was discovered (a secret catch in a bas relief of a heraldic crest opened it) that led to a room with walls bearing many mounted heads - of humans! Two full-body stuffed humans guarded the door, a man on the right, a woman on the left. Each of these held spears and was posed as though defending themselves.
Piled on a long table in this room was all the heroes’ gear and clothing, which they gladly repossessed.
Wandering back to the Grand Hallway yet another secret passage was discovered behind a paining of the Prince’s great-grandfather, this one leading to the pit in which they had waked yesterday.
Having found a number of secret passages, the heroes recalled several notable features, artworks and the like, that might be worth a closer look.
In the guest hallway a secret door by a huge painting of a battle was found opening onto another narrow, unlit accessway, which ran behind all the guest suites and allowed the bedrooms of each to be viewed through what was again obviously the two-way mirror in each room! Each mirror had the now-familiar rear frame with a catch that apparently allowed the mirror to be used as a door, and a “pull” to enable the mirror to be pulled closed after use.
As they returned to grand hallway the Alarm was raised! Obviously the guards had found their dead comrades!
As three guards raced into the Grand Hallway, the team left via the kitchen to the courtyard.
As the heroes attempted to take stock, six guards ran out of the barracks and prepared to engage with black powder muskets. A frantic firefight broke out. A volley of black powder weaponry was answered by spear throws and, from Forsyth, revolver fire, to very little effect on either side.
Wilhelm fired his electric pistol and killed one guard outright, but eight More guards raced out to join the fracas while three of original guards begin reloading.
More gunfire was exchanged and Forsyth was seriously wounded. The heroes retreated deeper into courtyard, and Wilhelm "goobered" eight Martian guards with his sticky webs, entangling them, but as then seriously wounded by a concentrated black powder volley. Jones dropped to the ground, wounded or dead.
As the Martians gathered for another volley Wilhelm healed himself using his miracle healing device, restoring his health completely and erasing all signs of the violence he had so recently undergone.
Martians began breaking free from the entangling webs, and savage Hand-to hand combat broke out. Hartwell was surrounded and badly wounded. Wiseman was also surrounded.
Realizing that the situation was dire, Hartwell and Wiseman broke away from close combat and rendezvoused with Wilhelm, Forsyth and poor Jones, who was being dragged by Forsyth.
Hartwell used his miraculous teleporter and took everyone to the Prince's bedroom. Jones revived enough to speak, but was weak and unable to take further part in combat shenanigans. Wilhelm used his device to cure Forsyth and Hartwell.
Panting, bloodstained, the heroes pondered their next course of action …
- a more-or-less universal trade lingua franca widely spoken on Mars↑
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